Best Mac 2025: Every Apple Mac and MacBook compared
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If you’re wondering which Mac to buy, you’ve come to the right place. In our Mac buying guide, you’ll find everything you need to know about the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac Studio, with expert buying advice to help you choose the machine (and configuration) that’s right for you.
Apple makes six different types of Mac: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro, but within each of those categories there are variations in the size, specs, and features, so things can get pretty complicated. That’s where this guide comes in, helping you make the right decision so you can find the Mac that matches your needs, whether its the best value for money, the most powerful, the most portable, or a combination of all those things.
Best Mac 2025: Mac & MacBook Buyers Guide
Our top choice of Mac in 2025 is the MacBook Air because it offers a great combination of value for money in a compact package that will appeal to the typical Mac user. However, that may not be the best Mac for you if you need the most powerful Mac, in which case we would recommend the MacBook Pro which brings you all the power you could need in a portable form.
If you don’t need a laptop Mac there are some excellent options in Apple’s desktop range, with the Mac Studio providing the best value for money and saving thousands compared to a similarly specced Mac laptop. If a low budget option is what you are looking for then look no further than the Mac mini, which is the cheapest Mac at just $599/£599.
Below we’ll take you through each Mac currently available from Apple, to give you an overview of what’s on offer and what you’ve got to choose from. We also have additional advice for choosing the best Mac laptop in our comparison of the MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro.
13-inch MacBook Air, M4 (2025) – Best Mac for most users
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What is it? The 11-inch MacBook Air is Apple’s most affordable laptop, designed with portability in mind.
What’s new? Apple introduced the M4 version of the MacBook Air in March 2025. As well as the M4 chip it features an improved camera, Thunderbolt 4 support, support for 32GB RAM, and a new Sky Blue color.
Who’s it for? If you are always on the go, don’t want to be bogged down by a regular-size laptop, and need a versatile computer that looks good, it’s a great choice at a great price. If you want a larger screen there is a 15-inch MacBook Air, which we discuss below.
How much does the 13-inch MacBook Air (M4) cost? The entry-level 11-inch M4 MacBook Air costs $999/£999, which is great news because in previous years to get the latest chip you had to spend $1,099/£1,099. There are three configurations and you can create build-to-order models with even more memory or storage.
What are the specifications? The specs for the M4 MacBook Air offer an improvement on the previous generation. The MacBook Air now ships with at least 16GB RAM and we recommend avoiding older stock with just 8GB RAM.
- Apple M4, 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16GB memory, 256GB SSD, two Thunderbolt 4 ports: $999/£999.
- Apple M4, 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB memory, 512GB SSD, two Thunderbolt 4 ports: $1,199/£1,199.
- Apple M4, 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB memory, 512GB SSD, two Thunderbolt 4 ports: $1,399/£1,399.
- Additional options: Up to 32GB memory, 2TB storage.
What are display specifications?
- The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina on the M4 MacBook Air display has a native resolution of 2,560×1,664 and 500 nits brightness.
- The MacBook Air M4 can support two external displays.
How do I connect stuff? The M4 MacBook Air models are the first MacBook Air models to support Thunderbolt 4, which means that they can now support a dual monitor set up. If you want to connect USB-A devices, you need either a USB-C to USB adapter, like Apple’s $19 / £19 one, or a USB-C hub that has USB-A ports. See our round-up of the best USB-C hubs and adapters.
The MacBook Air has Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) for connecting to a network. It provides built-in Bluetooth (5.3) for wirelessly connecting a mouse or other peripherals. If you want to connect to an ethernet network, you need an adapter.
How fast is it? When we tested the M4 MacBook Air we were impressed by the Geekbench 6.4 results. It was much faster than the M3 MacBook Air and the M4 chip even beats the M3 Pro in some tests as you can see in our Mac processor benchmarks. If you are upgrading from an old Mac – especially if it is one with an Intel chip – you will see a big difference.
Any other considerations? The MacBook Air should be more than fast enough for general-purpose use. The only issue is that, because it doesn’t have a fan, it may slow down during long processing sessions to keep cool. So if you are likely to be video editing or compiling code the MacBook Pro with its fan is a better choice. Also note that (as with almost all Macs) it’s impossible to upgrade the storage or memory after purchase, so you should b
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